Still unusually speculative; we're told previously that an Imperius debt is not a life-debt, so it already has a burden of improbability (did they misspeak or simply mean to imply that a debt of some sort is created without reference to how heavy it is?).

And the latter suggestion, while very clever, has the problem that it requires the numbers to work out, so we couldn't conclude that it will work without numbers, so a fair author will not expect us to work it out without numbers, Eliezer is a fair author, and Eliezer hasn't given us the numbers. (We don't know what the margin for conviction is, or how much of the margin is former Death Eaters who used the Imperius defense, or that they all said it was Voldemort who Imperiused them and not, say, an unknown Death Eater whom Harry did not defeat.)

Well, we'll see in a few days.

How about: invoke Lucius's life debt. Trade it for Hermione's.

If his debt can make him withdraw charges or clear Hermione's debt, that alone should suffice.

You misunderstand, the point is there are 2 possible debt strategies; for one of them, the numbers do have to work out.

"Think of the Wizengamot as individuals instead of wallpaper".

I'd say Logos01's strategy exemplifies thinking of them as individuals, actually...

I understand your point, but I'm not sure the analogy is quite correct. In the case of the lottery, where the probabilities are well known, to make a bad bet is just bad (even if chances goes your way).

In this case however, our estimated probabilities derive ultimately from our models of Eliezer in his authoring capacity. If Vladimir derives a lower probability than the one I derived on Harry using the solution I stated, and it ends up my theory is indeed correct, that is evidence that his model of Eliezer is worse than mine. So he should update his model accordingly, and indeed reconsider whether I was actually overconfident or not. (Ofcourse he may reach the conclusion that even with his updated model, I was still overconfident)

I think Eliezer's policy as expressed here is better.

I try not to downvote people when they are right.

Even if you win a lottery buying the lottery ticket was still a bad decision.

Nonsense. That's like saying that two-boxing Newcomb's problem is "right". If you win, you made the right decision. Your decision-making method may be garbage, but it's garbage that did a good job that one time, and that's enough to not regret it.

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